India Expects China's Respect to Sovereignty Amid Project With Pakistan

Indian authorities expect that Beijing would respect the country's sovereignty amid the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project through the Pakistani-controlled part of the Kashmir region, Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since the partition of India in 1947. The two countries have gone through three wars over the region, but the conflict has not been resolved.

"China is a country which is very sensitive on matters concerning its sovereignty. So we would expect that they would have some understanding of other people's sensitivity on their sovereignty," Jaishankar said, as quoted by The Times of India newspaper, speaking about the CPEC project implementation in Kashmir.

China and Pakistan agreed to build an economic corridor in 2007 to facilitate bilateral trade. On November 13, 2016 the first trade convoy came from China to Pakistan's deep-sea port of Gwadar, managed by the Chinese Overseas Port Holdings Limited company.

According to the project's website, the CPEC is expected to contribute to the economic growth of such countries as Iran, Afghanistan, India and the Central Asian republics, benefiting China and Pakistan as well.